Casino Solitaire, an Overview

Casino Solitaire has, over the years, been the preferred pastime of spirited leaders, and oft times simply the man in the street. Although technology is in a race to change the entire face of the world as we know it, Solitaire continues to remain the firm favourite of people from all walks of life. So much so, that recent computer technology has embraced the game in its totality and different versions of Solitaire are freely available on most computer software programmes like Windows XP and Vista.

The History of Solitaire

The game is said to have originated in France, although there is no real evidence to suggest this, and the first mention of Solitaire, or Patience, in English literature was only in 1870 in the book, ‘Illustrated Games of Patience’ by Lady Cadogan.

Napoleon Bonaparte whiled away the hours of his exile in St Helena allegedly playing Patience, and American President, Franklin D Roosevelt, is reported to have enjoyed the occasional game of Solitaire, but it remains the guarded domain of virtually anybody who enjoys games, particularly casino card games.

Solitaire is the American name for the British equivalent, Patience, and there are as many as 750 different varieties of the game. It is a game solely for the single player, and the aim of the game is to sort a standard deck of 52 cards into the correct ranking, regardless of the suit of each card.

The Rules of Klondike Solitaire

One of the more popular varieties of solitaire is commonly referred to as Klondike Solitaire and we take a quick look at the rules pertaining to this form of the game:

A standard 52-card deck is used to deal out 28 cards into 7 tableau piles with the number of cards per pile increasing from one to seven, from left to right.

Only the top card of each pile is face up, the rest are hidden

Above the 7 piles there will be four spaces for each Ace in the pack.

The aim is to fill each space with an Ace from both the piles and the remaining cards of the deck, and then build each pile upwards from Ace through to King. Remember that black must go onto a red card, and the numerical rankings must follow, but suits do not form part of the game in this version.

One card or a group of cards in the correct sequence and colour may be moved from one pile to another.

During play the closed cards will move to the top of the pack and then, and only then, may they be turned over and utilised in the game

Empty tableaus, or spaces in the original line-up of the seven piles, may be filled with a King only, or a group of cards headed by a King.

Once all the moves on the table have been made, then the unused or remaining cards in the deck may be used as stock. Cards from the stock pile may be moved onto the piles on the tableau, and the stock pile may be shuffled twice during the game.

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